The great company that hosts my blog, Posterous, has today released new theming features that allow me to customize colors and a header image. If you're new to the blog, you'll just never know what it looked like before. I'm especially happy that I can add header art to incorporate my brand style, like with my new business cards. Now the blog feels all my own... well, it's actually for everyone!
Now it's time to pass them out! Who wants one?
The recent website update debuted the new CampSteve logo. Before then, CampSteve never even had a logo, despite my heavy interest in brand building and visual identity. The new image was born from a few snippets of my creative past.
The first of the black examples above is my handwritten signature that I don't use often because most of my work is digital. The second example is the "signature stamp" that I created years ago which you'll find on 90% of my art. I've used this digital stamp to sign nearly all my work during the last five years. It's the closest I've had to a logo but it never really served as one.
One problem with the stamp is that it doesn't reflect my real signature with the iconic curly S. I even write that S when I sloppily sign bank deposit slips. The S is the essence of my signature. The stamp also doesn't have enough design sophistication to work as a logo and isn't up to par with my work nowadays.
So I redesigned my signature stamp while simultaneously creating the CampSteve logo, blending it all together. I contemplated my personal brand and what CampSteve has grown into over the years. What started out as a portfolio website has become the core of my creative and professional self. My artistic style is heavily influenced by vintage poster art and often inspired by the grandeur of the American west. This led to the retro-western style in the logo, taking on a more whimsical, mid-century look over the more common 'old west' influence. And of course, I incorporated my curly S.
The bottom row of logo examples shows how the brand expands into other visual elements - a version with .com, just the S as a quick identifier, and one for the Almanac (my e-newsletter). The style of the logo will lead the redesign for the rest of CampSteve.com as well.
Personal brands are important for the self-employed. You ARE your business.
I've officially begun the redesign of CampSteve.com which will launch in phases.
